July 13, 2004

OLD MEDIA AVOIDED

We're reaching really encouraging numbers for a book that has, tellingly, received little mainstream press coverage. In other words, the message has entirely bypassed the old ways of communicating and succeeded in getting people excited and active. We reckon the mainstream press are a little scared that something, anything, can sell without their promotions, so maybe NHJ is a taste of much to come.

Why is it that after being on all kinds of talk shows blathering on about their latest books, some people will say their message is being suppressed? They do the same thing when they claim they are being censored. Boggles the mind.

If Lowenstein really believes that " ..the message has entirely bypassed the old ways of communicating .." does this mean he believes radio is some sort of new way to communicate? He must, since he's been on all those stations.

It's insulting to realize people must think we're stupid and believe what they say when evidence to the contrary is readily available. Perhaps they think more books will be sold if they tell us their message has been suppressed/censored?

(Michael Moore has claimed his various 'messages' were being suppressed as well. I don't know many people who have had a larger soapbox.)

The Left loves to insist it's being censored and has to get its message out by alternative media, when in fact it's all over the awful, corporatized, Clear Channeled, Rush-filled, Fox-dominated, fascist regular media, not to mention right on the front tables at big chain bookstores that have killed the independent bookstore, at shopping mall multiplexes which lead to ever-greater suburban sprawl and emission of greenhouse gases, etc. There's something childish about this eternal need to feel that you're the rebels fighting the big machine when your ideas, or at least attitudes, have long since dominated the big machine.

I remember right after 9-11, I was sending a friend of mine constant updates on Noam Chomsky's latest mass media appearances in which he would discuss being the best-known intellectual who was completely barred from mass media. Fortunately he does seem to have dropped off the radar a bit, in favor of more broadly appealing, dumber rivals like Moore.

hahaha you should be a lawyer TB
after that cross examination/comprehensive dacking , "untenable" sums up the margoloid position on this issue.
shameless faux-outrage is an artform in margoland, and they really believe that everyone is seriously buying their crap.

Isn't it strange that all the promotion has been by website and radio? Probably to prevent actual moving images of Margo escaping and permeating the public consciousness.

As someone who has (shudder) seen Margo briefly in the flesh - she wafting round like a bad smell at the tally room last Federal Election - I can vouch for the fact that the first thought that popped into my head was "Well, now if that's not a face for radio, I don't know what is." Maybe a new career looms after the package...

And no, Loewenstein and Heidelberg may be pseudo-intellectual wankers cut from the same cloth, but they appear to be different people. Not that one could tell the difference between their inane utterances if they weren't signed with their names.

PW - I agree with your interpretation. After all, it is essential to these types of authors that they convince themselves they are being suppressed, censored, opposed, etc, and that begs the question of why. I think the main reason is that such a viewpoint allows them to claim that, if the book doesn't get read, it's not because it was crappy, but because it was kept down by THE MAN. And in today's world of internet freedom, what else could this mindset be called other than illogical, unreasonable, and incoherent?

Thus, when lefties screeds don't sell, you see them screaming about censorship, as Ted Rall did when his crappy column was dropped by the NYTimes (http://www.theagitator.com/archives/010773.php). What lefties can't admit to themselves is that fully-informed people CHOOSE to reject them. It's much more romantic for them to imagine themselves as flying below the radar.

The constant shrieking, on national mass media, about dissent being stifled always puts me in mind of "Monty Python and the Holy Grail." No, not the "Help, I'm being repressed, come see the violence inherent in the system" line.

Q: And how do you know she's a witch?

A: Well, she turned me into a newt!

Q: A NEWT?!?!?!

A: ... I got better...

The difference, of course, being that today's loud unstifled dissenters are not self aware enough to realize how foolish they have made themselves look.

as has been said, lets not let the truth get in the way of the leftist fantasy of being oppressed. Lets have a look at some comments from Margo's own site:

I loved the book. And yes, what is happening in Australia is sooo wrong. So what I would like to do/offer if possible is to offer some free web hosting to any individuals and groups that feel they have something to say.

Jack wrote: Andrew: Great stuff, and thanks. Will stick your email up today - just to confirm, is it OK if I just put up your contact email address, and advise interested types to contact you direct?

Side-stepping truth. Again.
Antony Loewenstein 05/07/2004
So, it's two weeks since our book was released. We've been told, by Penguin and other reliable sources

I'm Antony Loewenstein, one of the collaborators and contributors to Not Happy John!. It's been a wild couple of weeks, and the response by all you out there to the book and its message has been really encouraging for us all. The media coverage has also been telling. Who's covered it, who's ignored it, who's praised it, who's trashed it and who has simply engaged in personal attacks

Nothing like no publicity and new ways of communicating eh? Hypocrite. Come and see the violence inherent in the system, I'm being oppressed....... get your hands off me.... fascist.......

The only people contributing to the NHJ "blog" are Antony Loewenstein, Harry Heidelberg, Jack Robertson, and errr, that's it. Boys have written almost 90% of the reviews that grace NHJ state-of-the-art pages.

Is NHJ a boy's book? Is it engaging the other 50% of Australians? Is it a book for boofheads? Are women marginalised once again from Australian politics? Why hasn't someone at the SMH asked these questions?

Hanyu, maybe Margo only selects males to have any real association with, due to her powers of animal attraction.

Yes, I've seen 'those' photos of Margo with what are reported to be women friends, but bloody hell, if they really are of the female species then they must have been hiding behind the door when God was handing out the looks!

As for those photogenic blokes she has hanging around like bad smells. Strewth! They remind more more of a bunch of eunachs bragging about their prowess at the local knockshop, than crusaders out to spread the word of the holy grail.

Surely there must be at least one reporter who could give an unbiased report of NHJ. I'd suggest naming the piece "Piss Off Margo."

Lofty: Yes, I agree with you about the animal attraction aspect (I've seen the pictures, too). She's certainly attracted animals. But surely someone should be investigating the highly skewed gender split here. Nasty stuff, this gender divide. Very nasty indeed. Especially if you're an SMH femihack.

However, I don't want to seem like I'm sucking up, Lofty, so here's my one quibble with your comments. Given Margo's self-confessed "Don't flush the toilet every time you go wee wees" campaign, I think the unbiased review should be entitled "Piss On Margot".

Which ever way you cut it, Margo's a winner. We're all just stupid losers: losing our right to speak freely, vote, piss and flush...

Darp Hau, I flicked through it in a Brisbane bookshop, but, at $ 25.00 a copy, I wasn't tempted. It's printed on very cheap paper, a sure sign of a brief shelf-life, and I what I read was very similar to Margoyle's dreadful column.